Skip to content 7/18/2025 Congressional Victories, International Conflicts, Domestic Abortion Concerns and a Life Well Lived Jul 18 · 59 min ...more
7/18/2025 Congressional Victories, International Conflicts, Domestic Abortion Concerns and a Life Well Lived
July 18, 2025 · 59 min
Analyzing the rescissions package, Big Beautiful Bill, and Halt Fentanyl Act, tensions between Israel and Syria, efforts to expand abortion drugs, and an example of living with a biblical worldview.
Series Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video July 18, 2025 · 59 min · Washington Watch with Tony Perkins - Video
Analyzing the rescissions package, Big Beautiful Bill, and Halt Fentanyl Act, tensions between Israel and Syria, efforts to expand abortion drugs, and an example of living with a biblical worldview. ...more Show the full description Show less Analyzing the rescissions package, Big Beautiful Bill, and Halt Fentanyl Act, tensions between Israel and Syria, efforts to expand abortion drugs, and an example of living with a biblical worldview.
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In this video 0:00 Current Events and Political Updates4:10 Washington Watch and Political Analysis20:22 Biblical Worldview and Cultural Engagement
Current Events and Political Updates 0:06 Welcome to the Washington watch news desk. I'm Zachary Rolle bringing you today's top stories. A Catholic church in Gaza has tragically been struck by ammunition from an Israeli tank.0:18 3 people have been killed and 9 more injured with 1 still in critical condition. Israeli prime minister's office released this statement. Israel deeply regrets that0:30 a stray ammunition hit Gaza's holy family church. Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the faithful. Israeli0:42 officials also pledged to investigate the incident with the findings, quote, published transparently. As for the White House's response, press secretary Caroline Levitt said president Trump did not have a, quote,0:54 positive reaction to the strikes, but affirmed that it was a mistake.0:58 It was a mistake by the Israelis to hit that Catholic church. That's what the prime minister relayed to the president, and you should look at the prime minister's statement.1:08 We'll keep a close eye on this story for any updates. Back stateside, economists are seeing red flags in the housing market. Many Americans are having trouble buying their first home.1:20 A chart from Torsten Slock, chief economist of Apollo Global Management, showed that the number of first time homebuyers has dropped dramatically. Back in1:31 2010, the number sat at 50 percent and has now fallen to 24 percent. Economists warn that this precipitous drop could cause economic trouble in the future because Gen
1:43 z could, quote, struggle to build lasting wealth. They also noted that this downward trend could have a, quote, serious ripple effect on the economy at large.
1:55 Moving to a positive development, the largest provider of sex changes for minors in the US will soon be no more. The Center for Trans Youth Health and Development at Children's Hospital Los
2:07 Angeles joins many other hospitals and medical centers in either closing or terminating their programs. The White House celebrated the news as a victory.
2:17 The president made it, a very early priority to sign very strong executive orders to cut off the funding for any hospital or any, medical facility in this country that provides such
2:29 barbaric procedures. The president wants to protect the innocence of children, and I know the vast majority of Americans support him in that effort.
2:38 So the LA Trans Youth Center will be closing its doors for the last time on July 20 second. In other news, the White House's rescissions package is finally headed to president
2:49 Trump's desk. Before approving the package in the senate, liberal Republicans voted to restore their proposed cuts to the woke policies in the PEPFAR program. Because of the alterations
3:01 made, the package has to return to the house, where early this morning, they voted to send it to the White House just meeting the deadline. The bill will cut 8000000000 dollars in wasteful foreign
3:13 aid programs and 1000000000 dollars in funding for left leaning media outlets like NPR and PBS. President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law today.
3:25 Lastly, there have been some concerns raised about president Trump's health. Reportedly, his legs have appeared swollen, and images have emerged of bruising on his hands. The White House
3:37 has tried to lay these worries to rest, announcing that the president was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency. Essentially, this condition occurs when your veins have difficulty moving blood up to
3:49 your heart. This causes blood to collect in your legs. The White House labeled the condition as, quote, benign and common. As for the bruised hands, they
4:01 were attributed to frequent handshaking and aspirin therapy. This is a reminder to be in prayer for president Trump's health and his safety. And those are
Washington Watch and Political Analysis
4:13 today's headlines. I'm Zachary Goll. You can dive deeper with the Washington Sand at washington sand dot com. Better yet, download the Stand for mobile app where you can watch this and other
4:25 news. You can also follow us for updates on social media at FRCDC. Up next is Washington Watch with Jody Heiss. We'll be back next week with more stories
4:37 that matter.
4:51 From the heart of our nation's capital in Washington DC, bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation's leaders and newsmakers,
5:03 all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today's host, Jody Heise.
5:10 Well, good afternoon. Welcome to this July eighteenth edition of Washington Watch. I am Jody Heise, a senior fellow here at the Family Research Council and your Friday host. So
5:22 glad to have you on board with us. Coming up on today's program of Washington Watch, well, it was a deadline met and promises kept.
5:33 The Republican party and and president Trump and, everybody that works on our side is promised fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline, and we're delivering on those promises again tonight. We I just
5:45 signed our, HR 4, which is our, rescissions package of the first of what we believe will be multiple rescissions packages. That's our plan. I'm delighted to send that over to the president's desk for signature, and
5:55 he'll, he'll sign that quickly.
5:59 That was house speaker Mike Johnson taking a victory lap, a well deserved 1, I might add, after the house passed the president's first rescissions package. By a pretty narrow vote, it was 2 16 to
6:11 2 13. It took place a little after midnight last night this morning. And we'll break down what it took to get that pass that package to the president's desk, and I'm joined here in just a moment
6:23 by Kansas congressman Ron Estes. He's a member of the house budget committee, and he'll break all that down for us. And there's been a lot going on in Syria where clashes between
6:34 2 tribes have now drawn Israel into the mix. In fact, Israel actually launched a wave of strikes this week.
6:42 We are actively engaging all constituencies in Syria to navigate towards calm and continued discussions on integration and a stable, more prosperous future for all Syrians.
6:54 To that end, we are calling on the Syrian government to lead in determining the path forward.
7:03 That was US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce yesterday, and I'll be joined just a little bit later in the program by doctor AJ Nolte of Regent University to help unpack for us
7:14 what is actually unfolding now in Syria. And if you've been tuning in to Washington Watch this week, which I certainly hope you have, but you'll notice that Tony's been
7:26 highlighting the need for the Trump administration to stop, to put an end to the Biden era policies that have allowed dangerous abortion drugs to literally
7:38 be trafficked across state lines. And by the way, and I'll talk a little bit more about this later, but we have a petition, for that, which we encourage you to sign. You can get more info and actually
7:50 sign on simply by texting the word life to 6 7 7 4 2. Again, I'll talk a little bit more about that later. But while we're trying to reverse these horrible policies,
8:02 the pro abortion side is working to keep them. In fact, they're actually trying to make them even worse than what things are right now. I'll be joined a little bit later in the program by FRC's
8:14 doctor Chris Gacek to discuss those effort by pro abortionists and what you and I can do to help stop them. And then to close out the program today, I'll be joined
8:26 by David Clawson for our weekly Biblical Worldview segment to discuss some of the headlines that may have been overlooked this week, but nonetheless, they are issues worth
8:38 considering through the lens of scripture. So we've got a lot coming your way today. You don't wanna miss any part of it. But if you do, you can certainly go to our website, tony perkins dot com,
8:50 and stay up to speed. Okay. It was shortly after midnight last night, midnight this morning, in fact, the wee hours of this morning that the House of Representatives passed the first
9:02 rescissions package requested by president Trump. The legislation claws back some 9000000000 with a b, 9000000000 dollars of
9:13 already approved federal funding. This includes things like, public broadcasting and foreign aid. It was a narrow vote, as I mentioned just a moment ago, 2 16 to 2
9:25 13, but it did meet the deadline, which was today. Friends, this is, 9000000000 dollars is a lot of money, but it's not a lot in the big picture.
9:37 But this is the first time in decades that a president has successfully been able to get a rescissions package through congress. And so will we see more coming? You just
9:49 heard the speaker say that we will. So what other areas of the federal government are ripe for pruning? 1 here now to discuss this and more is congressman Ron Estes. He's a member of the
10:01 house ways and means committee as well as the Budget Committee and the Joint Economic Committee. He is all over this issue. He represents the fourth congressional district of the great state of Kansas.
10:13 Congressman Estes, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always a pleasure to have you.
10:18 Well, great, Jody. Thank you for having me on.
10:21 Okay. Listen. For those that, perhaps have not been closely tracking, all the the the events of this week on Capitol Hill, catch us up on what
10:33 actually took place the last couple of days relating to the rescissions package and getting it to the president's desk.
10:40 Yeah. As as you highlighted, obviously, there's a there's a lot of work we need to do. 1 out of 5 dollars that the federal government spent is borrowed. So we we've got a lot of things we need to look at.
10:52 As you as you said, the the rescission package here was the first time in decades that a president has requested that discretionary spending be pulled back. That, hey, we don't need to spend everything that was
11:03 appropriated a year or longer ago and and focused on some specific areas. You know, if you look through the what's in that, rescission package, the things that we were particularly pulling out, things like funding
11:15 for NPR, you know, that they they wanted to fund the drag queen programs for children and and programs talking about animals need to have their own pronouns and and, you know,
11:27 PBS had programs talking about, white privilege and we all heard earlier this year all of the the horror stories coming out of the USAID in terms of the money that was being wasted around the
11:39 world. Things like 3000000 dollars for electric vehicles in Vietnam and 70000 dollars for a diversity, equity, and inclusion musical in Ireland.
11:51 I mean, I don't know why Ireland would want to have a DEI musical, but if they do, the Irish taxpayers ought to pay for it and not American taxpayers. And so it was great to do this rescission package. I'm glad to hear
12:03 speaker Johnson, reiterate today that, we we need to be doing more of this as we look at all of the discretionary spending, that, comes out of the federal government and what do we do going forward. We've got
12:15 a lot of work to do, not just on the discretionary side with rescissions, but, obviously, some of those automatic spending programs as well.
12:23 Yeah. And, speaking of, and I agree with you. It's great to see the speaker talk about more yet to come. And, in fact, the White House budget chief for us to vote has said the same
12:35 thing, that more rescissions are likely on the horizon. What other areas of federal government, in your opinion, may be ripe for rescissions?
12:46 Well, when we look at, across the discretionary portion, we the the the spending has grown so great since before COVID. If you look at going back to 2000, I believe, 2019,
12:59 our our tax revenue has gone up. It's gone up 46 percent or so. So we've got a lot more tax revenue coming in after we passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. But what we've seen is
13:10 spending's gone up 70 percent. Some of that was, some temporary spending or should have been temporary spending in COVID, but now it's gotten baked in and it continued on on grant programs and
13:22 other areas across multiple programs. We've got so many programs at the federal level that are redundant. You may have 4 or 5 different programs in 2 or 3 different agencies that are designed to target the same
13:34 issues. So we've we've got lots of areas to look at that. Dose group did a great effort earlier this year in identifying some of those areas, but we need to have a constant look at that in
13:46 terms of, where where do we spend money, where should we be spending money, And does it make sense to spend dollars at this point, particularly when we're borrowing 1 out of 5 dollars that's being spent?
13:59 Yeah. Good point. I think Doge really did set the the ball on the tee in a lot of ways. At least that's a great starting point. Switching gears somewhat, I'm sure you probably saw the new poll that Democrats have
14:10 literally hit rock bottom, all time low for favorability among voters, and yet they're doubling down. They're blasting this 1 big
14:22 beautiful bill and, think somehow they're going to use that as a, an instrument to gain voters. What do you make of their tone? It just seemed are are they tone
14:34 deaf to what the American people want?
14:37 They they really are. I mean, they've they don't have a positive message. They don't have something that they want America to be for. I mean, basically, the Democrat party has become a party of socialists that they're
14:47 looking at. How can they make government spend and dictate what people do. You know, you look at, for for example, we look at the the 1 big beautiful bill, and I could talk about so many great provisions
14:59 there, in that. But their message out of the 1 big beautiful bill that they opposed was because they wanted to make sure illegal immigrants got Medicaid. And they wanted to make sure that people
15:10 didn't have to work at all for the Medicaid dollars that were being given to them to provide for their health care, even as little as 20 hours a week, working in a job or or getting an education
15:22 or even in a in a volunteer role. And so as they get more strident, trying to talk against common sense things, the American public's turning against them. You know, when you look
15:34 at the the polling data that's out there right now, of all Americans, you know, 72 percent opposition to the Democrats and the positions they're taking in in congress. And even among
15:46 Democrats, there's a majority. 52 percent of Democrats are not happy that the Democrats in congress are actually doing what, should be done for America.
15:56 Yeah. It it's really, it's amazing that they keep doubling down on the very things that are getting them in trouble. I but, more power to them. Listen, you wrote an op ed this week
16:08 that I thought was was great regarding the 1 big beautiful bill. Tell us a little bit about that.
16:13 Yeah. We've we've talked a lot about the 1 big beautiful bill. There's just so much positive things in there. A lot of it was centered around the tax provisions, that, we're we needed to extend after 2017
16:25 that were gonna expire this year, and and there was also provisions around border security and defense. But if you really peel some of the layers back and look at some of the details, there is a whole lot of pro
16:37 family, pro life provisions in there. And what we were wanting to really do was make sure that, for example, Medicaid money, was funding was used, not by Planned Parenthood
16:49 to provide abortions. I mean, we should have Medicaid to actually help people preserve and protect life and not end it. We wanted to make sure that, families could raise their children. And so we
17:01 focused on, increasing the child tax credit for families and and indexing it for inflation. We we increased, a tax credit for adoption for people to adopt families. And
17:12 and that's so important now when we see the birth rate dropping down to, you know, 11.7, percent per, per per thousand. And and so, you know, we we need to have a continuous
17:24 growth of population to to make sure that America continues to grow. You look at provisions like, employer funded or, childcare provisions. We wanted to make sure that those were
17:36 available in permanent, a family, and medical leave to help people who maybe have a a temporary, illness or an issue with their family. And so we wanna make sure that, after these
17:48 disastrous years of Biden inflation that, people were able to raise their families and have the income to provide for their family.
17:57 Well, it really is remarkable. It's a first first time in decades. I I I just gotta underscore that. First time in decades that congress has actually been able
18:08 to pass a bill, of of getting rid of wasteful spending. And so hats off to you and your colleagues. I just, we're very proud of you and grateful, and this
18:20 is just the beginning of more to come. Thank you, congressman Ron Estes of Kansas. We appreciate you so much.
18:28 Alright. Thank you, Jody.
18:30 Alright. Have a great weekend. Alright, friends. We got much more coming your way following the break. Doctor AJ Nolte will join me to discuss a lot going on in Syria right now, and Israel's been
18:42 dragged into it. So you wanna catch what's happening there, and we'll cover it right after the break. Stay tuned.
18:56 A family is the oldest, most tested, and most reliable unit of society. It is divinely created and sustained, and yet there are those who are always tampering with its values and structure.
19:08 That's why we need organizations like the Family Research Council that could effectively defend and strengthen the family.
19:15 Family Research Council began over 40 years ago, like all great movements of God, with prayer. Today, rooted in the heart of the nation's capital, FRC continues to champion
19:28 faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview.
19:34 FRC is 1 of those bright lights that helps us focus on true north, and I shudder to think had they not been here that it could have been worse, worse, worse.
19:44 The Family Research Council is key. It's 1 of a handful of groups that I think will determine whether our children live in a country that
19:56 enjoyed all of the freedom and all the opportunity that we enjoyed in this great land.
20:02 It's just a wonderful para church organization that doesn't seek to take the place of the church, but it seeks to assist the family and the church as we try to move forward
20:13 successfully, not in a defensive mode, but in an offensive mode as we seek to live our lives according to the holy scriptures.Show more
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